For Papelbon, there is no escaping headaches

Toronto's Roy Halladay, a nemesis of the Red Sox (and many other teams), delivers in the first. (Barry Chin/Globe Staff)

When Jonathan Papelbon's hand goes to his head, it's easy to suspect the worst - that this is another day when his head pounds and lights hurt and all he wants to do is crawl into a darkened room.

For the past two days, Papelbon has been working through another migraine, a problem that has affected him throughout his career. Though Papelbon hasn't pitched since last Tuesday's debacle against Texas (in which he gave up one of the Rangers' 17 runs), he has had to pitch with a migraine this season and at other points in his career, including a notable outing last Sept. 14 against the Yankees, in which the Sox gave up a five-run lead.

But he's learning to cope.

"They don't go away," he said. "You can usually feel the effects of them the day after, the aftereffects. But it's hereditary, they don't go away.

It's just something that I'm going to have to deal with. It's not just a headache, it takes over your whole body. People that don't get them, they don't really understand them."

He has not yet had a migraine so crippling that he's had to beg off pitching. Part of that is being vigilant about treating the headaches as soon as he senses one coming on.

While Papelbon has said that he isn't a fan of taking medication on days he pitches, he has learned to turn to Maxalt at the first sign of an aura. When his vision starts to blur, and the dots of light cloud his eyes, he knows it's time.

"I think that with taking my medicine and being able to kind of just fight through it, I usually am able to go out there and pitch."

Distance man
Roy Halladay's complete game last night marked the fifth time an opponent has thrown one against the Sox this season. It was also Halladay's second complete game against the Sox this year. His other was a 1-0 loss April 29, also at Fenway Park . . . The 2-hour-18-minute game was the shortest for the Sox since a game at Seattle May 28 that lasted 2:11 . . . Jason Varitek ended an 0-for-15 slump with a single in the third inning last night, but the Sox catcher is just 5 for 33 (.152) in his last 11 games, and 32 for 199 (.161) in his last 62 games . . . Jason Bay had two singles, marking his sixth multihit game in 14 contests with Boston.

Deja vu
While it wasn't exactly the same situation, there was something about last Tuesday night's slugfest that reminded Manny Delcarmen of another game, one he'd probably like to forget.

"The Pawtucket game was more like anything you could think of in baseball, balls dropping, a couple errors," Delcarmen said. "This game, I mean, everything we threw was just getting hit, but it did remind me a little bit."

In that game, May 5, 2007, with the PawSox leading by eight runs in the ninth inning, Delcarmen and Craig Hansen combined to give it all up. It wasn't quite like Tuesday night, but not all that far off, as Delcarmen gave up three of the runs against the Rangers. The bullpen gave up nine in all, and starter Charlie Zink was charged with eight of his own in Boston's eventual 19-17 win.

"Hopefully, it was just one of those days that crazy stuff was happening," Delcarmen said.

Over the past 46 games the bullpen has been on the right track after being inconsistent for much of the season. The team has a 3.68 ERA (166 earned runs in 405 1/3 innings) in that span, the second-lowest ERA in the American League to Tampa Bay's 3.59.

Picks are signed
The Sox agreed to terms with six picks from the 2008 draft, including fourth-rounder Peter Hissey (outfielder), and fifth-rounder Ryan Westmoreland (outfielder). The Sox also signed righthanded pitcher Tyler Wilson (13th round), lefthanded pitcher Colby Cervenka (27th), shortstop Carson Blair (35th), and righthander Kyle Stroup (50th). All of those players will head to the Gulf Coast League Red Sox. Friday was the deadline to sign players from this season's draft. The Sox signed 29 of their 52 picks, including the top 16. Unsigned players no longer belong to the Sox . . . Bartolo Colon, who came out of his start Friday for Pawtucket after just one inning, will be kept on normal rest before his next start. Colon was ill, leading to the early exit. "Rather than trying to force the issue, let him go by a normal week and we'll go from there," manager Terry Francona said . . . Tim Wakefield (shoulder tightness) played catch yesterday for the first time since going on the disabled list. Wakefield felt good after throwing 30 pitches at 60 feet. He'll likely do the same today.